CHARTER DREAMS FISHING BOATS RUNNING OUT 55 MILES TO EL BANCO

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Fishing, Kim Moore, Charter Dreams, Sept. 5, 2004:

The Puerto Vallarta tuna bite is on! Nice yellowfin tuna Puerto Vallarta fishing action in the blue water at El Banco (55 miles offshore) this week. The yellow fin are biting mostly on live bonita but these have been somewhat hard to find certain days this last week.

Several days this week Puerto Vallarta fishing boats were having to go to Corbetena (38 miles offshore) to “make bait” before they could move on to El Banco to fish.

Merle Erickson of Chicago, Illinois , fishing “Anticipation” with Captain Ed Moore on Sept. 3rd landed 2 nice yellowfin tuna and a wahoo. One weighed in at approximately 192 lbs and 197 lbs according to the IGFA formula. The first one refused to give up and fought for 2 hours and 25 minutes before he was landed.

Merle told Capt. Ed that “he would have liked to have fished more but he was hooked up ALL day fighting fish.”

Merle fished El Banco and Corbetena off Puerto Vallarta on Sept. 4th and brought in another 2 tuna – one was estimated to weight about 180 lbs. and the other estimated to weigh about 70 lbs.

Puerto Vallarta fishing action cooled this day at El Banco when several Orcas moved into the area so they headed back to Corbetena. At Corbetena, Merle picked up 3 nice dorados. Corbetena has been producing some sailfish and dorado action and smaller schooling yellow fin tuna.

This is only Day 1 and 2 of Merle’s 5-day Puerto Vallarta fishing trip so we look forward to finding that 300 lb. tuna for him! Merle Erickson is very active angler who was awarded the 2002 Angler Award from the Billfish Foundations for most striped marlin released worldwide in 2002. Merle is a professor for the School of Business at the University of Chicago.

Trash lines around Puerto Vallarta's Marietas Islands and even inside the bay have had some nice 25 – 40 lb. dorado on them.

Puerto Vallarta water temps remain 85-87 F. Seas have been about 3-4 ft. early in the week as Hurricane Howard sat offshore southwest of us; thankfully this didn’t churn things up too much. Days have been sunny, warm and humid. Thunderstorms in the late afternoons cool things down and make for a “fresh” evening.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Puerto Vallarta and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Puerto Vallarta may be found at Mexfish.com's main Puerto Vallarta page.